


11.06 Coda Ficlet

by messier51



Series: One-shots [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Coda, Depression, Gen, spn 11.06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 11:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7531831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messier51/pseuds/messier51
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam has trouble sleeping after his visions of Lucifer; Cas can relate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	11.06 Coda Ficlet

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr as a continuation of a 5-minute drabble challenge [here](http://messier51.tumblr.com/post/133060603292/messier51take-five-minutes-and-five-minutes-only).

Sam’s head is going to split open. His brain slides in and out of Hell, like the last dregs of an archangel’s grace might be plastered to the back of his eyelids. 

And nowhere is safe, anymore. The car didn’t keep the visions out. The bunker didn’t keep the visions out. Sam _can’t think of anywhere safer_. 

On one hand, it might be nice to have answers–on the other, it’s going to get really damn hard to do anything if he can’t engage with reality. First thing tomorrow, he’s going to look into that. 

Sam pauses at the door to his bedroom, remembering that he’d told Cas to use his TV. The covers on his bed are askew, and the TV is too old to have turned off when the DVD player did. White noise filters through the room and it’s more calming than Dean and Cas’ raised voices were. 

Sam collapses into his bed. It smells a little like Cas. 

Sam sleeps soundly through the night for the first time in weeks. 

* * *

 

When Dean goes to bed, Cas sneaks back into Sam’s bedroom wondering if he can find something new to watch. Sam shudders bodily in his sleep as Cas walks in, but the lightest brush of fingers on Sam’s temples sends him deeper into sleep, breathing evenly. Six-and-a-half feet of Winchester relaxes fully into the bed.

Cas settles himself into the chair by Sam’s bed, watching him sleep for a while before turning on the TV. He sets the volume low enough that Sam’s human ears won’t hear a sound, and loses himself in home shopping network advertisements. 

Sam wakes up quietly the next morning. Cas can tell he’s awake by the change in his breathing, but Sam makes no other noise for a while. He focuses on the television. 

“Good morning Cas,” Sam finally says. “What the hell are you watching?” 

Cas unfocuses his eyes from the individual tricolored pixels of the ancient tube screen to see colorful blobs of cartoon characters. He shakes his head and says, “I don’t know. I got distracted timing each pixel’s refresh rate.” 

Cas squints. 

“Good morning Sam.” 

“I didn’t expect to have a visitor in my room, everything okay?” 

“I wanted to watch–I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been in here while you slept, should I?” 

Sam shakes his head. “It’s okay Cas. Little weird, but it’s okay. Just, gimme a heads up next time?”

“Okay.” Cas smiles tentatively. Dean would’ve yelled at him again by now. 

“My first semester at Stanford I used to spend all weekend watching TV. Didn’t matter what was on or anything. Before I really made friends though, and I was homesick but I didn’t want to think about going back, I would get lost in the fantasy worlds of whatever was playing.” 

Sam gets up and takes off the shirt he slept in, the one he’d worn the day before. He turns off the TV. 

“Actually, it got pretty bad there for a while. I stopped turning in my homework, and I probably would’ve failed out. Funny thing is, if that had happened, I woulda had to have gone back. I would never have passed without–” Sam grimaces, “–well, without my friends, anyway. So if you need anything?” Sam leaves the rest unsaid as he grabs a shirt from his dresser and sniffs it, and seems to decide it passes a test. 

Sam opens the bedroom door before turning around and leaning on the doorjamb. 

“Hey Cas, actually, do you remember when you pulled me out of the cage?” 

Cas feels his face go numb.

“Do you remember seeing a crack in the cage?” 

Cas furrows his brow. “No.” 

“Huh. Okay.” Sam taps the doorway as he leaves. 


End file.
